our family happenings

About Me

I am the mother to 6 children and former foster mother to 2.
I am passionate about whatever it is I am passionate about, until I change my mind. I dream big, plan big, and once in a while I even make it big.
We are planning to take our freak show on the road. Join us as we embark on a new adventure!

The Cast

Blog Archive

Thursday, September 30, 2010

The primary reason that I don't blog is that I don't really know what exactly to blog about. We are no longer fostering, aren't planning on adopting right now, gave up couponing...therefore I have nothing interesting to share. I guess I'll try really hard just to write about my boring life.

We have a leave date that is coming up faster than I can believe. The preparations are crazy hard. We've gone back and forth about towing our van, trading our van in for a mini van to tow, buying a really old cheap tow vehicle, and towing a trailer. At this point we would prefer to tow nothing, but in the process of doing our due diligence to prepare for towing we discovered that our motor home is at maximum weight BEFORE loading anything into it. We still have some leeway with combined vehicle weight (motor home plus whatever it's towing) so a trailer loaded with our things will lower the weight of the motor home. See? Getting ready is going to be the death of me!

By the way, I've tried to contact the manufacturer regarding the discrepancy with the weight, and three people told me that it was a great question and promised to transfer me to someone who could answer it, but the trail ended at a machine and thus far no one has returned my call.

Everyone wants to know where we are headed first. At this point, I have no idea. Weather is going to play a huge role in the decision, as will the date that we actually leave (we just dropped a commitment that may allow us to leave a week earlier than planned, IF we can be ready in time).

The vegan diet has been going amazingly well. My food cravings have completely disappeared, and Gary and I have both lost at least 10 pounds each. I had some issues with soy so I've had to take it out of my diet (can't give up my Bragg's though!) so figuring out what I'm going to eat and what I'm going to feed the kids is still a challenge, but there is really nothing that I'm missing.

The primary reason that I don't blog is that I don't really know what exactly to blog about. We are no longer fostering, aren't planning on adopting right now, gave up couponing...therefore I have nothing interesting to share. I guess I'll try really hard just to write about my boring life.

We have a leave date that is coming up faster than I can believe. The preparations are crazy hard. We've gone back and forth about towing our van, trading our van in for a mini van to tow, buying a really old cheap tow vehicle, and towing a trailer. At this point we would prefer to tow nothing, but in the process of doing our due diligence to prepare for towing we discovered that our motor home is at maximum weight BEFORE loading anything into it. We still have some leeway with combined vehicle weight (motor home plus whatever it's towing) so a trailer loaded with our things will lower the weight of the motor home. See? Getting ready is going to be the death of me!

By the way, I've tried to contact the manufacturer regarding the discrepancy with the weight, and three people told me that it was a great question and promised to transfer me to someone who could answer it, but the trail ended at a machine and thus far no one has returned my call.

Everyone wants to know where we are headed first. At this point, I have no idea. Weather is going to play a huge role in the decision, as will the date that we actually leave (we just dropped a commitment that may allow us to leave a week earlier than planned, IF we can be ready in time).

The vegan diet has been going amazingly well. My food cravings have completely disappeared, and Gary and I have both lost at least 10 pounds each. I had some issues with soy so I've had to take it out of my diet (can't give up my Bragg's though!) so figuring out what I'm going to eat and what I'm going to feed the kids is still a challenge, but there is really nothing that I'm missing.

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Gary and I have been eating vegan for the past few days. Things have been going surprisingly well. The new eating plan has been far simpler than I expected, and we have been greatly enjoying our new foods. Really!

I was typing out some recipes for a friend, and thought they were good enough to share. If you are happily consuming animal products and oil, then skip the first two.

Grind the bread in the food processor, take out the bread crumbs and put the beans in to process. Mix together with your spices. Make into patties and fry in a little oil. We served these with sauted onions. The texture is very soft, but the flavor was really good.

Monday, August 16, 2010

I feel like my house is a gigantic magnet and I am attached to it with a huge rubber band. Snap.

This summer was spent working ridiculously hard to be out. Then plans changed. Then they changed again. I'm right now in the middle of the one place I said I didn't want to be. Hmmm. Is that of my own doing? Did I create the one thing that I didn't want? I hate when I do that!

Monday, August 09, 2010

Three of my kids have been attending the "summer enrichment program" which is a collaboration between the Parks and Rec Dept and the local Boy's and Girl's Club. Mostly they all love it. They can swim, play sports, all kinds of crazy summer camp type games, craft, and most importantly, socialize.

There have certainly been a few downs along with the mostly ups. It's been hard for my kids to adjust to group mentality. Running because it's time to run, sitting because it's time to sit, and not talking because it's quiet time. We have talked at length about how that is just the nature of the beast in getting large groups of children together.

There have been a lot of group punishments that my children have really objected to, and rightfully so. If they were not even present at the time the punishment was levied, it seems completely unfair that they are forced to participate. Even if they are present, it also seems unfair to punish an entire group due to a small percentage that refuses to comply.

Some of the counselors don't even seem to like children, and I have heard numerous complains from my children that this one in particular has been unfair with the group, and has on several occasion made extremely inappropriate remarks such as, "Ugh, I hate this group!" and "I can't stand you guys!" This has been addressed with the director both by me and by my children, and the response is just that this one counselor is a stickler for the rules and doesn't let any infraction slide. The director did admit that those remarks were not acceptable and agreed to speak with the offending adult, and offer her more breaks during the day. According to my kids, this stickler mentality/not letting any infraction slide doesn't seem to apply to the truly misbehaving children.

One of my kids decided today to stop attending as the negative is sucking all the positive. I feel horrible about that decision, but I totally understand. It's no fun to be punished when you are just trying to have a good time and are following all the rules set forth.

I was there this morning to drop off and observed another group without them knowing I was there. To be clear, I wasn't sneaking around, just doing a late drop and coming across the room from an angle that made me hard to see. This was a group of 5-7 years olds. They were standing at attention as a counselor lectured them. The little I heard included a threat of writing apology letters if she heard another word about misbehavior and "Child X, did you hear me!?!?"

I felt sick to my stomach. This isn't boot camp, it isn't even school. It's summer enrichment camp! And these are little kids! I thought this was supposed to be a fun experience. I honestly feel that if the adult involved were focused on having FUN with the kids, they would. However it seems that the people in charge don't seem to fond of children to begin with, and are more concerned with creating an environment of obedience, creating a negative experience for both adult and child.

My first reaction was to take my children and go home, but the two that are still there are there at their own choosing, I am not forcing anyone to stay. I did however have to speak to a counselor for one child who hasn't been feeling well and is afraid to spend the day because from past experience knows that sitting out when it's "time to run" is never allowed. Of course the adult assured me that would be fine.

Any idea how to handle this? I really want to make a stink and have some changes made, but I really believe this is just our American Culture: Children are bad, can't be trusted, and need to be reprimanded. I guess as long as they would rather go, I will send them, but I would love to hear some suggestions on how to make this better for everyone.

Sunday, August 08, 2010

My poor neglected blog. I have been wanting to write again, but I feel uncomfortable because my blog seems so scattered. Sigh. I'm going to try to just jump back into things, so if you have any questions, please ask.

Were are we right now? Still living in Maine, still in the house. We had the final, final, last lawn sale today. This time it really is the last one, because we were bought out! What a dream come true! Gary was just starting to put things out for free on the corner when a couple (regulars!) came and bought some things, then asked how much we wanted for everything. We threw out a price and they said they would think about it. They returned not much longer, bought a few more things, then gave us the difference to make the agreed upon amount and started loading up. Gary and I joked that we should have paid THEM to take everything as it really did relieve us of such a HUGE burden. So, no more lawn sales.

We took the house off the market with the goal of renting it. The timing seemed to be off for renting, and we just didn't feel good about it, so we decided for now to keep the house and re-evaluate in the spring. We literally don't have anything for winter, so we must be somewhere other than here.

This process has changed me in ways that I cannot yet articulate. When we began to rid ourselves of all worldly possessions my biggest fear was getting stuck in the middle of the process. I felt like I could stay where I was with all my stuff, or come out on the other side with none of my stuff, but I didn't want to get caught in the middle with some and not all of my stuff.

Originally we were pushing to be out of the house for the summer. It felt like I was killing myself getting things out of the house. Then everything all summer was on hold because of the lawn sale. If it was a nice weekend, we had to stay home and sell, and we couldn't make any plans. That was really hard and made me feel very out of control. The date was pushed up for leaving, but still the house was in chaos. All energy going to getting it ready to be rented or sold, getting things ready for the sale, and very little energy going toward daily maintenance because there was just no energy left over. At one point I complained that I was missing the baby days of my very last baby and I just wanted to slow down and enjoy.

So here I sit. In the middle with some and not all of my stuff. It isn't as bad as I had imagined it to be, but I still feel just out of sorts. I don't quite have my balance in this new (partially material-less) location and I just feel sort of off. The lawn sale was very overwhelming for me so I spent most of my time inside cleaning. It feels really good getting the house back into order a little bit. For a long time I was being brutal in my purging, and now I'm not really sure what my relationship to material goods is. Need it, want it? I'm figuring it all out.

Anyway, that's sort of where we are at. We hope to leave soon. Most of the major hurdles have been crossed. We have a few more project that need to be completed but they are scheduled. Right now we are hung up on a tow vehicle. There are few makes and models that can be flat towed, and so far NONE of them seem to be 8 passenger models. We aren't sure if we should keep our van and store it (probably not), trade it in (for what?), or sell it outright (not sure what we would drive around in). Everything is complicated. If you have any suggestions for a tow vehicle, PLEASE share them!

Monday, July 19, 2010

The background: I agreed to participate in a paid focus group, that will take place later this week at a local hotel (in a conference room!)

The scene: At a restaurant with my family. Gary is just returning from the bathroom as I am giving the kids a run down of our schedule for the week.

Still standing as he begins talking, he rather loudly asks, "Oh, you're going to the hotel this week? How long with that take, like 2 hours? And how much are you getting paid?"

We both burst into hysterical laughter. The kind of laughter that is so consuming that I can't even shush my daughter as she is yelling, "Why are you going to the hotel if you aren't even spending the night?!?!" Repeatedly.

Saturday, July 03, 2010

The kids started day camp last week. In an effort to get to know the kids, they played a game where you named three things about yourself, two true, one false. Noah picked the following three statements:

1.) I've been to Las Vegas2.) I was born in Maine3.) I plan to live in an RV

Keeping in mind that we live in a place where most of their friends have literally never been out of the state. His responses made me smile.

Here's my list:

1.) I've never been to high school2.) I've been pregnant 8 times3.) I maintain a very popular website under a pseudonym